A useful tool in any photo restoration is the vanishing point tool. Good for any perspective based restoration. Examples, where to use this tool, are for use with buildings or car parks, roads, paving, or windows, etc. In Photoshop CS2 / CS3 it is found under Filter/vanishing point from the top menu.
Basically, it is a tool that allows you to draw a grid over your image and follow the lines of anything in perspective. In a recent image, I removed some people from a car park with a large wooden clad building in the background.
The tool allows you to follow the vanishing perspective line along and clone along those lines. In the case of a wooden clad building the planks of wood along the building’s side get smaller as they go into the distance. People stand in the car park alongside the building and are in the way.
Removing people from images using vanishing point and clone
Removing people from images using vanishing point and clone
With the vanishing point tool, you can remove these people fairly simply by drawing the grid making sure it covers the people and a large enough area to sample the clone tool from. Keep the grid following the lines of perspective and if the grid turns blue you know you have done it right. To ensure the grid turns blue, make sure your verticals are parallel to each other. Now when you clone over anything within the grid it can be cloned in perspective. Thus the planks down the side if the building are restored naturally over the people.
To tidy up the car park and to make sure the parking bays continue naturally through the image I added another plane to the perspective grid. You can drag out the handles from the grid to create another grid more or less at right angles (well in perspective terms anyway) and repeat the process in the car park.
Obviously, there is more to it when it comes to cloning but by now your method of selection and cloning abilities should be up to scratch. Rebuilding the shrubs without repetitive patterns in them and any other flora and fauna to fill in the gaps.
You are done, congratulate yourself!
If you want to read a more in-depth article see another example of vanishing point and clone
Hope this tip helps. If you find it too tricky to learn this technique and have a photo in need of restoration and don’t know where to start, check out my main photo repair page for more details on how I can help you and how you can hire me.
Neil
Providing a quality photo repair and restoration service uk
